Fences are used to prevent people, animals etc. to intrude a certain area. Many countries have one or several fences to protect their national borders as such to prevent people from other countries to immigrate. Also industrial sites, nature reserves or other areas/grounds are surrounded with the aid of fences to prevent intrusion of people and animals. These fences need to be solid, strong, firmly anchored in the ground and they should be difficult to climb and difficult to dig under in order to effectively stop potential intruders.
The mesh panels which are used in such fences usually comprise a first set of wires extending substantially parallel to one another and a second set of wires extending substantially parallel to one another, wherein the wires from the first set and the second set intersect, and where these intersect are mutually attached.
With the term ‘wires’ elongate elements or rod-shaped elements are indicated. These wires are, for example, formed by pulling force or by extrusion and they can be made out of metal, plastic, etc. The wires can for example be welded together where they intersect in order to attach the wires. Welding indicates every operation or treatment, whether or not with the addition of welding materials or gluing materials or products and whether or not accompanied by a (local) heating of the parts to be connected, which creates a durable connection without external coupling means and with a substantially mechanical connecting function. The mesh panels of this fence can also be produced by making holes in solid panels and by stretching these panels as such to create a wire-shaped pattern.
Many fences use posts to firmly anchor the fence in the ground. JP 2001245546 describes a fence with front panels and bottom panels in which the bottom panels are buried. Because of this the bottom panels and part of the front panels are located underground and people or animals cannot easily dig under the fence. To ensure the strength, firmness and rigidity of the fence, the fence further comprises posts to anchor the fence firmly in the ground.
The necessity of posts to ensure the strength of a fence is seen as a disadvantage. For every post a separate hole needs to be drilled and each post needs to be embedded in concrete to obtain a solid and rigid fence. The placing of a fence with posts is therefore labor-intensive and requires an additional substance, namely concrete. Fences which are used to shield national borders, nature reserves and industrial sites are often several kilometers long. They are also often located in areas which are difficult to reach and are remote. To get everything in place, good organization and lots of time are required. Therefore the less materials needed, the better. The need for concrete contributes to the need for additional time and organization because it is not always possible to make concrete on site and concrete has a limited drying period. For example, on certain sites the necessary requirements to make concrete, like water, electricity, etc. are not available on site. So concrete has to be delivered on site. But if the site is a remote site or a site located in a hot and/or dry area, the delivery of concrete is, because of its limited drying time, problematic.
In sandy areas the use of posts has also another problem. The digging of holes to put in the posts is difficult because the holes easily collapse. Often holes need to be re-dug several times. This is of course time consuming.
EP 0069473 describes a fence where the use of posts, which are anchored in the ground, is no longer necessary. The fence comprises front panels and bottom panels in which the bottom panels are buried. In installed state of the fence the bottom panels are located underground and the front panels are arranged in a zigzag configuration and are partly located underground. Because part of the fence is located underground and because of the zigzag configuration of the front panels, the fence has a certain strength and firmness. However the strength is limited and the fence is easy to climb precisely because of the zigzag configuration of the front panels. The ability to keep intruders out is therefore limited.
The object of the invention is therefore to provide a fence which does not comprise posts that need to be anchored in the ground, which does not require concrete, which is strong and firm and which is effective against intruders. The object of the invention is also to provide in a method of installing such fence in which the installation is less labor-intensive, less time consuming and which does not require additional substances such as concrete.